Xiaomi managed to ship 14.8 million phones in Q1 2016

China’s biggest smartphone player, Xiaomi had a rough previous year. After setting the expectations at 80 million sales, the company only managed to sell 70 million units in 2015. And things aren’t looking good in 2016 as far as Q1 results are concerned.

After delivering a mediocre performance in 2015, a lot was riding on Mi 5 and Redmi Note 3 to deliver stellar performance. According to IHS Technology’s analyst Kevin Wang, Xiaomi has sold 14.8 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2016. Compared to same period last year, the sales numbers were at 14.98 million. So, one can see, the smartphone maker is unable to achieve any growth.

There are actually two reasons to consider here. First, Xiaomi’s online only sales model and second, the company currently operates in China and some other Asian region countries, which further limits themselves to reach broader audience. Make no mistake, Redmi Note 3 and Mi 5 are solid offerings from Xiaomi, it’s just they are not available in key markets like US and Europe.

So, unless Xiaomi figure out a way to enter more markets, it will be a tough task for them to achieve any substantial growth in 2016.